The History of Selkirkshire; or, Chronicles of Ettrick Forest

Appendix

EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS MDCCCLXXXVI Prince. Is it upon record 1 or else reported Successively from age to age 1 Buckingham. Upon record, my gracious lord. Prince. But say, my lord, it were not register'd — Methinks the truth should live from age to AGE. III., Act iii. Sc. 1. CONTENTS. PAOE Etymology of " Selkirk," XI

Chapter I

To 1126 a.d. Foundation of Selkirk Abbey — Selkirk then an old town — Ancient castle — Endowments of Abbey — Monks removed to Kelso — Virgin and Child in Burgh Seal, 1-8

Chapter II

1126 to 1512. Castle frequent residence of Scottish kings — Early Parliaments at Selkirk — " Sorrowlessfield:" tradition versus fact — Selkirk as a surname — Annexation to England — Recovered by the Douglases — Selkirk burned by Umfraville — Burgh Accounts in Exchequer Rolls — Quaint old names of Burgh lands — James rv. at Selkirk — Slaughter in the town — Again burned by Musgrave — Earliest Burgh Records — Instructions to Night-watch — Sumptuary edicts by Town Council — Philiphaugh's duties as Sheriff, ......... 9-19

Chapter III

1513 to 1526. Burgess-roll before Flodden — Summons from the king to assemble for war — Bailie's directions — Ramparts and ditches put in order — Ker of Greenhead, " weill-wisher " of Burgh — Two months' gap in Burgh Records — Accepted traditions erroneous — Sir William Brydone a "Pope's Knight "—" The Flodden Flag "—Lady woodedge incident — Frequent service of heirs after Flodden — Inventories of household and personal effects — Quaint laws by Town Council — Frequent strengthening of Night-watch — Penalties for not rising to the fray, .... 20-32

Chapter IV

1527 to 1542. Strange contract with Roland Hamilton about a maiden — Priests of chapels connected with church— Fear of pestilence — Town isolated — Approach of English : fortifica- VI CONTENTS. PAGE tions strengthened — Gift by burgess to church for requiems for his soul — Jewels, weapons, and rich dresses of deceased burgess — Grants of land and privileges by James V. — Burgh Minstrel — Ale-brewing — -Provost Muthag and Bailie Kein slain in defence of town's lands — Scott of Buccleuch, Provost of Selkirk, 33-43

Chapter V

1543 to 1599. Town frequently burned and plundered — Lukewarm support of Reformation — Treatment of a madman — The community against Murray of Philiphaugh — First M.P. for the Burgb, and list of successors, ...... 44-51 CHAPTER YL 1600 to 1660. Shoemakers' Statutes — Scott of Haining's friends rescued from Bailies — Church offences — Schoolmaster and precentor — Archery practice in kirkyard — Scourged and banished for theft — Various lands transferred — Tolbooth broken by Sir Robert Scott of Thirlestane — Old Scots couplets — Buccleuch and lairds of his clan enrolled burgesses — Forty Selkirk men march against king's party in England — First in breach at Newcastle — Exactions by Cromwell's troopers — Selkirk in possession of English under Lord Howard — Ancient silver arrow — Visits of Royal Bodyguard — Winners' names, . . . '. 52-66

Chapter VII

1661 to 1699. Persecuted Covenanters — Division of Selkirk Common — Boundaries of land awarded to Burgh — Satchells on a Selkirk bailie — Extreme poverty of inhabitants — Riot by Kers and dragoons, ....... 67-74

Chapter VIII

1700 to 1715. Church tyranny and intolerance — Funeral customs — Woman excommunicated Town's debt — Water supply — Burgh M.P. to vote against Union with England — Shirking " the plate " on Sunday — Duel, and death of Laird of Raeburn — Coal prospecting at Lindean — Lad and lass pilloried and banished — Craft precedence — Thief banished — Sinfulness of curds and whey on Sunday — Drinking after ten prohibited Pant Well erected — Horse Races — First Jacobite Rebellion — Shoes supplied to Highland army — Torwoodlee to command Burgh troop, 75-92 CONTENTS. VII

Chapter IX

1716 to 1744. TAGE A domineering Council — Lawyer cursed in church — Duke of Douglas asserts his regality — King's birthday — Ceremony at Cross — Eminent services of Town-Clerk — Grammar-School pupils acting play — Horse-racing — Executioner appointed — Burgh " Champion " — Precautions against pestilence — Burning of Meg Lawson, a witch — Profanity of Harden — Excambions with Haining — Elders as privileged talebearers — Church patronage — Runaway marriage of schoolmaster and Miss Plummer — Earthquake in Selkirk — Hangman's ladle abolished — Ornaments for Cross and Pant Well — A souter sells his wife — New bridge — Extraordinary prayer for weather — Duke of Hamilton electioneering — Gift of £200 — Indenture of Burgh hangman — Duke of Douglas again troubling — Laird of Haining expelled from Council — Great riot, ...... 93-110

Chapter X

1745 to 1799. Jacobites in Town Council — 2000 pairs of shoes to rebel army — Highlanders and batcher — Bridge carried away — Prevalent wickedness — Church patronage disputed — Election bribes — Duke of Queensberry's interference — Drastic law against mad dogs — Lax treatment of prisoners — Demolition of ancient ports and Cross — Hangman borrowed from Jedburgh — Fatal storm — Invasion by brown rats — Fall of new bridge — Strange suicide — Present bridge built — Poverty and want — Sir John Moore made a burgess — Robert Burns in Selkirk — Town to furnish men for navy, ......... 111-127

Chapter XI

1800 to 1834. Sir Walter Scott appointed Sheriff — Petty local strife — Skeleton found in Bog — Old Tolbooth demolished — Professor Lawson's military ardour — False alarm — March of Volunteers — Southey's bad impression of Selkirk — Sir Walter Scott elected Burgh elder — Common-riding banquet at Three Brethren Cairn — French prisoners' balloon — Ridiculous duel at Linglee — Search for coal — Silver cup from Lord Dalkeith — Sir Walter on the bench — scenes in court — Emperor Nicholas in Selkirk — Mimic battle at Bowhill — Robert Owen's candidature discouraged — Prince Leopold made a burgess — Projected railway — Town's right in Haining Loch — Sir Walter Scott designs flag for Selkirk — Lingering superstitions — Scott's death — Touching incident at his monument — Reform Bill " rings out the old " in Selkirk, ........ 128-160 CONTENTS. VIII

Chapter XII. Pagf

Old places: Trinity Hill, Peel Gait, Ring o' the Toun, Lady Well, St. Mungo's Well, Chicken Acre, Gallows Knowe and Moss-troopers' Graves, Tibby Tamson's — Old families and notables : the Andersons, Brydones, Clarksons ; " Davie Gellatly ;" Hendersons, Johnstons, Langs ; Professor Lawson, Dr. Mercer ; Mitchelhills, Rodgers ; William Riddell, Sam Russell, Rev. William Sorley, John Thomson ; Anguses, Ewarts, etc. — Old customs : cock-fighting on Fastern's E'en, King of the 161-176 School — Old weapons, and other relics,

Chapter XIII

Textile trade — Old Waulk-mills — Grants from Board of Manufactures — Linen trade — Incle-making — Customer-work — Tweed-trade — List of mills, . . 177-182

Chapter XIV

Guildry Book — Merchant Company — Incorporations of Weavers, Shoemakers, Tailors, Fleshers and Hammermen — Extracts from minutes, and lists of deacons, . 183-217

Chapter XV

Church and ministers of Selkirk — John Welsh, the Covenanter — Dr. Canaries, the Papist — The Old Church aud its subsidiary chapels — Church burnt — Trades Aisles — Quaint paintings on " breast of loft " — Old tombstones — Ghost story, . 218-234

Chapter XVI

Bowhill and the house of Buccleuch — Bridgelands — Broadmeadows — Carterhaugh, and the Handba' match — Fastheugh — Fauldshope and the Turnbulls — Foulshiels — Mungo Park — The Haining and its lairds : Scotts, Riddells, Pringles — Harehead — Hartwoodburn and the Currors — Heatherlie, Batts, etc. — Middlestead and the Plummers — Newark — Old Wark — Oakwood and the house of Harden (Polwarth) — Philiphaugh and its lairds : Turnbulls, Barbours, and Murrays — The Shaw — Sunderlandhall and its lairds : the Cockburns, Kers, and Scott-Plummers — Todrig, the home of a poet — Williamhope and the Stoddarts — The Yair — Greenhead — Whitmuir, ........ 235-380

APPENDIX.

. Charter of Selkirk Abbey — County items in Kelso Abbey rent-roll — Inventory of a laird of Gala (c. 1564) — Rent-roll of Gala estate, 1656 — Report on Gala, 1797 County voters, 1790 — Stock on Buccleuch farms, 1766 — "Extent" of Ettrick Forest, 1628 — Valuation Rolls, 1 64Æ,\1"8S3? etc. — Growth of agriculture — Wool and sheep premiums, 1760 to _V830 — Salmon-fishing and factory pollution- Population table, and Notes, . V,; . .- A. . . , 381-413 YtXX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ON SEPARATE PAGES. Portrait of Lord Alemoor, ...... Frontispiece. Selkirk Clause in King Malcolm's Charter, 1159, . . facing page 8 Selkirk Account in Exchequer Roll, 1450, .... 1* Minute of Town Council— Levy for Flodden, .... 21 Charter by James v., 1535, ...... Plan of Selkirk Burgh Lands, ...... Map of Haining (1757), showing Town Walls and Gates, . . 105 Plan of Old Tolbooth and Market-place, .... 130 Sir Walter Scott sitting as Sheriff, ..... 140 Portrait of Professor Lawson, . . . • • • 169 Plan of Town, 1823. ..-■••• 175 Oakwood Tower, ....•••• 23& IN THE TEXT.

PAGE Arms and Motto of the Burgh of Selkirk, ..... 1 The Brydone Sword, . ■ • • • • .28 Selkirk Burgh Seal, . ■ • • • • .29 Selkirk Silver Arrow. . . ■ • • ■ .52 Selkirk Prison, . • • • ■ • .111 The Pant Well, .....•■•• 118 Selkirk Burgess Cup, . • • • • • • .137 Letter by Sir Walter Scott (Facsimile), .... 151, 152 Flag designed by Sir Walter Scott, . . . • • .153 Scott's Court-House and Monument, . . • • • .157 Selkirk Market-place, 1837, . . . • • • .183 vol. ii. h ILLUSTRATIONS. X PAGE The Souters' Halbert, ...... • 200 Souters' Stone at Abbotsford, . . . . ■ . -.01 The Fleshers' Halbert, . . . . ■ • .213 Gate of old Churchyard, . . . . • • .218 Tombstones in Churchyard, . . . . • . -33 Tamlane's Well, . . . . . ■ • .283 Plan of Newark Castle, ..... .326 Stone in Oakwood Tower, . . . • .330 The Yair, ■ .375 ETYMOLOGY OF SELKIRK.

BURGH AND PARISH OF SELKIRK. 1119-24 Schelechyrch, . . . Title of Earl David's Charter.— Dalrymple. 1159 Seleschirche, . Charter of Malcolm iv. 1165-1214 Selekirche, . . . . Charter of William the Lion. 1227 Celeschirch, .... Great Seal, iii. 2308. 1232 Seleskirke, .... Roll of Glasgow Diocese. 1265 Selekrik, .... Exchequer Rolls, i. 30. 1292 Selechirche, . . . . Rot. Scot., i. 7. 1306 Selkirk, Eng. Charter to Aymer de Valence. 1309 Sellechirch, . . . . Rot. Scot., i. 80. 1322 Selkyrc and Schelgrene, Great Seal. 1402 Selkeryk, .... Rot. Scot., ii. 163. 1429 Selkrik, Rot. Scot., iv. 520. Selcraig, 1560 Selcraig, Acts of Parl, ii. 565. 1659 Salkraig, Acts of Parl., vi. (2) 884. Other Spellings. — Selchirche, Selekyrcke, Selekirke, Selkirke, Seleschyrche, Selechirc, Selekirc, Selechirk, Selkyrk, Selekirk, Selkirc, Selkyrck, Selkyrke. — Lib. de Kelso ; Lib. de Melros ; Chamb.

Rolls, etc. etc. Much ingenuity has been expended on the etymology of Selkirk. Sir James Dalrymple derived it from Schelch and grech, signifying the kirk in the wood ; and this was accepted by C. C 963. the compilers of the Old and New Statistical Accounts. Mr. Chalmers advanced Sei, great "' or good, and chyre, church, as the probable origin, offering the alternative of Sele, a hall or prince's court, for the first half of the name, which might thus mean the church of the prince's castle. Defensible guesses all three, though close study of the early spelling suggests another. Almost certainly, the first syllable of Selkirk is the same as the last in Galashiels, the earliest recorded spelling of the one being Schelechyrch, and of the other G&luschel. This being so, the proper interpretation would be — kirk of the shiels.

Schel recurs as first syllable, and a significant fact is the occasional coupling of Selkirk with " Schelgrene " in early documents. All pasture lands and " forests " were dotted over with shielings ; and near Peebles, which c. p. had much in common with Selkirk, there is a Shielgreen to this day. Peebles itself is from ' the old British word for tents or movable habitations. A notable instance of the same use of the word " Sei " is Brusks — originally Brocksele — shiel or hut on the marsh. ARMS AND MOTTO OF THE BURGH OP SELKIRK.

Chapter I. To

1126 A.D. — SELKIRK ABBEY. Selkirk is singularly destitute of any outward sign of its great and undeniable antiquity. Of the castles, towers, gateways, tolbooths, and churches revealed by ancient record not one remains ; and it is open to question if there be a building in the burgh which can claim an age of two centuries. But a visible and tangible milestone in the path backwards to the early days of Selkirk presents itself in the ruins of the ancient Abbey of Kelso. In one sense these are like a geological section — something of then history may be gathered from theh architectural strata. High up, florid pinnacles and peaked arches reveal a period when Gothic architecture was supreme. Lower down are the round arches of the Norman style, while at the base sturdy Saxon piers tell of a taste earlier and more rude.

Evidences of disfigurement recall the days, not now recent, when the fine old interim was rendered ugly enough to serve for the purposes of Presbyterian worship. Traces are still to be seen of the flames kindled when Hertford dealt vol. ii. a L. K. i. 3. App. the last blow to its stateliness. Imagination fills the spacious area with groups and processions of monks as they file from long stone passages towards the altar. Proud Border barons, with their followers, have knelt there in penitence, and there Scottish kings and Enghsh kings have acknowledged the King of kings. History spreads itself out like a map to the far-off day when David, newly crowned, moved in and out amongst the rising walls. After realising all this, one is in a position to comprehend the great age of Selkirk, for the monks who laid the first stone of Kelso Abbey came from the pre-existing monastery there.

To say this was in the year 1126, or 760 years ago, hardly enables one to grasp the period that has since gone by. Prince Charlie's passing is now nigh a century and a half back in history. But there was the battle of Philiphaugh 100 years before that, Flodden 130 years before Philiphaugh, Bannockburn 200 years before Flodden; and this removal of monks from Selkirk was 200 years before that again. There are flourishing Antiquarian Societies in New York and Boston devoted to the study and elucidation of the early history of the United States, or rather of the first British Colonies ; but people were born, and lived and toiled in Selkirk, for 350 years before Columbus began to dream of a continent beyond the Western Sea which lashed its waves on Spain. This is a degree of antiquity to satisfy the aspiration of any Scottish burgh, but Selkirk may claim still hoarier age.

We have it on the authority of David I. himself, before he ascended the throne, that Selkirk was even then an " old town." It is from the charter in which this statement is made, and from two others which followed it, that all information concerning old Selkirk is obtained. These are — Earl David's charter founding Selkirk Abbey (1119-24), his charter removing it to Kelso (c. 1126), and his grandson Malcolm's confirmation in 1159. While his three elder brothers followed each other on their father's throne, David, youngest son of Malcolm Canmore, spent much of his time in the Norman Courts of England and of France, acquiring a culture too rare in his native country. Having obtained a gift of Cumbria from the Scottish king, his brother, and Northumbria by marriage, David conceived the idea of settling in his own land some of those industrious monks whose beneficent works abroad he had often witnessed.

He accordingly applied to Saint Bernard, founder of the Benedictine establishment at 390. Tiron, who spared him a draft of thirteen of his followers — men not only of Christian faith, but of skill in many branches of industry. They were masons, carpenters, smiths, painters, and husbandmen. To provide for this valuable band of colonisers, whom he located near his own strong castle of Selkirk, Earl David endowed them with wide possessions and valuable privileges — " Like wealthy men who care not how they give." First, he gave them "the land of Selkirk, from where a rivulet app. descending from the hills runs into Yarrow as far as that rivulet which, coming down from Crossinemere, flows into Tweed ; and beyond the said rivulet which falls into Yarrow, a certain particle of land between the road which leads from the castle to the abbey and Yarrow — that is, towards the old town."

Besides the towns of Midlem, Bowden, and Aldona (?), he gave them his whole lordship of Melrose, lands in Sprouston and Berwick, shares in fishing, parts of burgh dues, a tenth of the "kain" cheeses of Galloway, half the skins of his kitchen, a tenth of the hides of stags which his huntsmen killed, an equal share of his fishing water about Selkirk, and equal right to his woods and pastures. In England, land at Hardingstrop, besides the mill and fields near the bridge of Northampton. AU this endow ment David dedicated to the Abbey of Selkirk, " in honour of St. Mary and of St. John the Evangelist, for the weal of his own soul, of the souls of his father and mother, brothers and sisters, and all his ancestors," for ever inalienably, so that none of his successors should presume to exact anything from the monks but prayers only for the weal of then souls.

In this document, the important points are the boundaries of the land of Selkirk and the mention of "the old town." How old that old town was can only be conjectured, but, from its name, certainly not older than the Saxon occupation, which began about the sixth century. More b. s. than probably the chirche was planted beside the scheles on the revival of Christianity, in the time of Queen Margaret, after its eclipse in Scotland for nearly 500 years, which would make the name now about eight centuries old. The scheles, which must have been there before the church, were the nuts or clachans of shepherds in charge of flocks out at pasture. The word is Saxon, the Norse being skalig, from which is derived " scalengas " in monk-Latin — used to signify a right of pasture as distinct from a gift of land.

So that the probable evolution of Selkirk would be — (1) a collection Patro logiae, v. 172, p. 1426, App, Hist. Coll. li. 237 of dwelling-places for herdsmen and hunters employed in the Royal Forest ; (2) the erection of a church, possibly by the Culdees of Old Melrose ; (3) the building of a castle ; (4) the settlement of a number of craftsmen under its protection, and the gradual gathering together of a community. This stage it had reached when the black-robed Tironensian monks came over from France to found the abbey. Gaufridus Grossus, a monk of Tiron, who wrote the life of St. Bernard, and who must have known the brethren who went to Selkirk, says : — " About this time (1108) David, afterwards King of Scotland, came to hear by report of the signal merits of our most blessed father then still living.

By dint of strenuous embassies he obtained no small number of disciples from the congregation ; and in Lothian he built them a house (coenobium) on a pleasant site near the river Tweed, which he sufficiently endowed with rents and wide possessions. After he had done this, desiring ardently to see the man of God, he set out from his northern home, and passing the bounds of many interjacent regions, braving the terrors of the British Sea, and crossing the provinces of Normandy, he arrived at Tiron. But he could not behold what he desired, for the holy father had already departed to heaven. Yet, lest he might appear ungrateful or careless of so great a man, he laid aside his royal dignity, and, on his bended knees, presented himself before the tomb with becoming reverence. The monastery, which he had already founded, he endowed with wider territory and revenues.

And taking with him twelve monks with an Abbot of the Order, in addition to those he already had, at length reached his own kingdom." That the deed of foundation was important is evident from the number and rank of its witnesses — John, Bishop of Glasgow, the Countess Matilda (daughter of Henry i. of England, and David's niece), David's son Henry (a prince of promise, whose early death was a blow to Scotland), Eobert Bruce (ancestor of the hero of Bannockburn), the Sheriff of Barnborough, and several knights of Norman lineage, whose names afterwards became famous in England. A striking commentary on the settlement at Selkirk is offered by Sh James Dalrymple, who endeavours to prove that the Abbacies founded by David were "calculat to propagat the Romish religion in this kingdom upon the mines and suppressions of the Culdean churches and monastries."

He represents the popish Bishop of Glasgow as being greatly strengthened by the erection of Selkirk abbacy, and its annexation to his diocese. But popular clamour forced Bishop John to leave the country (making believe to go to Jerusalem), until ordered back by the Pope. Again driven from his diocese, he lived with the monks at Tours till, in the year 1138 Kino- David commanded him to return, on pain of ecclesiastical censure. Dalrymple is of opinion that in 1125, when a papal legate came to hold the first Council in Scotland, there was no popish abbacy but one at Selkirk. Be this as it may, it is not to be believed that Earl David was actuated solely, or even chiefly, by a desire to extend the sway of the Roman Pontiff. It is more credible that, being alive to the advantages conferred by learned and civilised monks on other countries, he wished his own to be brought under their humanising influence.

The Ciddees, worthy ministers of a simple faith though they were, seem to have been destitute of those arts which flourished amidst the brotherhoods acknowledging the Pope. They were too much akin to their rude flocks to initiate that controlling influence over them which the Church eventually developed. It may thus be maintained that David in founding Selkirk Abbey carried out a patriotic policy, and that the amelioration of life which followed the Benedictine settlement was cheaply purchased at the cost of Culdee independence. These stout old anti innovators, however, did not surrender without a struggle. It has been already seen how they drove the Roman Bishop of Glasgow from his place ; and the monkish strangers at Selkirk no doubt suffered their share of persecution. So near to the powerful Ctddee monastery of Melrose, there must have been many partisans of the old faith ready to molest them, but for the protection afforded by the prince's castfe of Selkirk, under the shadow of whose walls they commenced to rear thenholy fane.

Much difficulty attends the identification of the "land of Selkirk," as App defined in David's charter. In the first place, it is evident either that the river from the junction at Bowhill to Tweed must then have borne the name of Yarrow instead of Ettrick, or that the " land of Selkirk " must have lain between Yarrow and Tweed. The latter hypothesis is untenable, and the former, though it simplifies the difficulty, does not remove it. The first rivulet which falls into Tweed below the junction is that which divides Faldonside from Abbotsford ; and if this be the rivulus of the charter, Faldonside lesser loch must be Crassansmer — mer or mere being the Saxon for lake, as in Grasmere, Windermere, etc. And if the Shaw Burn be that which " descends from the hills and runs into Yarrow," the " land of Selkirk" given to the monastery must have lain between it and Faldonside burn, while on the west side of Shaw Burn must have been the " certain particle of land between the river and the road leading from Castle to Abbey."

Although, to understand the charter at all, it is necessary to look upon Yarrow as continuing its name till it reaches Tweed, it should not be over looked that 100 years later, in 1232, the combined rivers were known as Ettrick. Subsequent references to the lands might have cleared away the difficulty, but for confusion arising from two Selkirks being in the field — Abbot's Selkirk and King's Selkirk ; in Latin, Selkirk- Abbatis and Selkirk- Regis respectively. Of the two the King's town would be the oldest, the Abbot's town consisting of certain cottages occupied by cultivators of the Abbey lands. For a century or two the distinction was kept up in ecclesiastical documents, but history does not record the date when Selkirk- Abbatis ceased to be a local habitation and a name. We are inclined to think that the property now and past memory known as The Batts, lying in the "land of Selkirk," as we interpret the charter, has something to do with the old designation.

Lists of Glasgow diocesan charters from 1180 to 1232 mention the church of Selkirk and church of the other Selkirk. In a deed granted at Seleschirche (1153-65), Malcolm iv. confirmed to Kelso "the church of Selkirk, with the half ploughgate of land which in the time of David my grandsire, lay dispersed about the fields (per campum) ; and as it is of httle use so broken up, I give them an equal portion of land in one piece for the foresaid half ploughgate. " A ploughgate was 104 Scots acres, equal to about 130 imperial acres. In a rent-roll of the time of Robert Bruce, the Abbey property in Selkirk- Regis is said to consist of the land of Bridgelands, con taining 1 6 acres, and of pasture in Minchmoor ; but various gaps in the entry, and the words " Selkirk Abbatis " without remark of any kind, show the scribe to have been at sea — confused probably by the dual name.

Further on we come upon the following entry : — L. K. var. L. K. 300. L. K. 460. Selkirk-Abbatis. " They have the said town of Abbots-Selkirk. One ploughgate and a half, which used to yield 10 merks yearly. Fifteen husbandlands, each containing an oxgang (13 acres) rented at 4 shillings. All the husbandmen have to give the Abbot ten days' work in autumn : two to furnish a cart for carrying peats from the moss to the Abbey, and two to provide a pack horse for carrying goods from Berwick to the Abbey. They have to give the same service as Bowden husbandmen — to plough every year an acre and a half in the grange at Newtown ■ to harrow one day with a horse ; to find a man to assist in washing, and another in shearing the sheep ; to carry corn with a cart one day in autumn ; to carry the Abbot's wool from the barony to the Abbey, and to find their own carriage beyond the muir towards Leshmahago (where the monks had a religious house, a sanctuary and great possessions).

Besides the husband lands there are 1 6 cottages in Selkirk-Abbatis with 1 0 acres of land between them : fifteen rented at 12 pence, and one at two shillings with nine days' harvest work, and assistance at sheep-shearing. Three breweries each pay 6s. 8d. per annum ; and one corn-mill five merks. Beyond the lordships they have 30 acres yielding 5s., besides four acres, called 'Richard Cute's land,' yielding 6s. yearly." A privilegium by Pope Innocent iv. (1243-54) is the last writ in l. k. 350 which the distinction is mentioned, his Holiness confirming the Abbey in possession of Monks-Selkirk (Selechirche-Monachorum) and King's-Selkirk. The rectorial revenues of the churches of King's-Selkirk and Abbot's-Selkirk l. k 471. are given at £20 and 40s. respectively in the roll of 1300, and appear to correspond with entries in the roll of 1567 valuing the vicarage at £66, 13s. 4d., and the " Kirklands " at the old sum of 40s. The rectorial revenue of Abbot's- Selkirk had thus been changed to the rent of a field, known within memory as " Kirklands," — the first on the left of the Bleachfield Road after leaving the old toll-house.

The disappearance of impalpable boundary lines is little to be wondered at, but it is marvellous how substantial walls which for thirteen years the monks of Selkirk were busy rearing should, " like the baseless fabric of a vision, Leave not a rack behind." Not a tittle of direct evidence exists as to the site on which they stood, much less a sentence surviving from the olden time to convey an idea of their extent and plan. Neither in the archives of the diocese of Chartres, where Tiron is situated, nor in those of the ancient Benedictine Abbey of Solesmes (kindly searched by MM. L'Abbe" Germond et L'Abbe" Piotin at the writer's request), is there to be found a trace of the offshoot to Selkirk. Perhaps when the dark recesses of the Vatican come to be opened, some plodding antiquary will reveal the secret.

Meantime, one has to be content with a dim tradition that the deserted walls stood scaffold-high for many years on what is now the south side of High Street, at the west corner of Tower Street. No secret is made of the reason why the monks abandoned Selkirk and went to Kelso. It was "because the former was not suitable for a monastery;" and candour compels the admission that the monks made a good change in respect of climate. Probably, however, the strongest reason was David's growing preference for Roxburgh Castle — a preference which became more marked when he succeeded his brother on the throne in 1124. He then set about the translation of the monks, and in 1126 it was effected, the Bishop of Glasgow being a strong advocate of the change. All their Selkirk rights and lands (except the lordship of Melrose, conveyed to the new Abbey there) were confirmed to them at Kelso, others being added.